


Whatever It Takes

by Lunarium



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Minor Character Death, Pre-Kerberos Mission, Rescue, throughout the years
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-18
Updated: 2018-04-18
Packaged: 2019-04-21 10:04:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14282577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunarium/pseuds/Lunarium
Summary: A tale of two lovers, the bond between them, and the lengths they would go to find one another again.





	Whatever It Takes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nary](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nary/gifts).



They met like two two galaxies colliding; the kid had nearly run him over, not seeing him even when the light from the hospital’s elevator lift splashed onto the darkened parking lot. 

“Whoa, easy!” 

The face turned up, a boy just barely younger than himself; dark eyes, deep and full of unspoken sorrow, burrowed into his. His lips were stretched into a thin line, and his shoulders trembled under where Shiro had placed his hands—he immediately lifted them off out of respect, but he couldn’t stop glancing back at the kid in worry. 

“Hey, is everything okay?” he asked and immediately chastised himself. _He’s heading into a hospital; of course he’s not all right, dimwit._ “I’m sorry what you’re going through…” 

He didn’t need a full explanation. The elevator lift of the town’s only hospital was just a couple paces in back of them. Even more, no other family was to be seen. Was he all alone? 

The boy’s eyes widened with some realization of his earlier rudeness. Shame colored his ashen cheeks. 

“I’m sorry…my father…” the words came low and soft; they crackled from the lack of use. He made to run off before stopping and turning back. “I came because Dad called me. The doctor said the treatment didn’t work. I’m the only one at home for him.”

His eyes widened as if unable to believe the words that had just left his own lips. Shiro could spot the slight quiver of his lips, though the boy fought to remain impassive. 

“There’s nothing to apologize for,” Shiro said. “My grandfather is in there right now. He needed another stent to open the vessels around his heart. He should be all right but…we’re worried. He’s all I have. I was just leaving, but…if you have no one else with you I can join you.” 

The boy took a step back. “No! You don’t have to—not for my sake!” 

Shiro chuckled sadly. “I know what that anger is like, buddy. The pain of having the only person in your life in here. We never wanted any of us in there, but…that’s just how it goes. It’s life, I’m afraid. My grandfather and I are the only ones in my family. Come. Let’s see your dad. Afterwards we can grab something to eat. I have a bike. Did you ride here or—”

“I ran.” 

Tears glimmered in those space-deep eyes, but he quickly pushed them back. Shiro imagined the kid dropping the phone and bolting out of his home to see his father, and his chest tightened. 

Shiro stepped closer and offer his hand. “Then you can ride with me later. I don’t believe I got your name yet, friend.”

* * *

The light burned the back of his eyelids. Sendak groaned against the irritation and cracked them open. The presence of another lingered, and he reached for his blaster. A firm hand gripped his wrist. 

“You will not find any enemies in this room, Commander Sendak,” spoke a voice. “Unless you wish our relationship to become thus.” 

He blinked and focused on the sneering face as he settled on the seat by the window. 

“Where am I?” Sendak demanded in a slurred voice. 

“The witch’s healing chamber,” the Galra said. “I dragged you in after your little dispute with Ranvieg.” Light reflexed off his tiny sharp fangs. “He would have torn you limb by limb, but luck played out so that you only lost one before it all ended.” 

Sendak looked down, noted a normal right hand, then immediately turned to his left. “ _No._ ”

“You will grow to love the modifications the witch has made to your body,” the Galra continued. “One of your eyes has also failed, but we had that fixed up quickly. I gave her some…recommendations from my own knowledge of the electronics. It is a sort of unquenchable passion of mine off the field, you could say. 

“And do not fret about Ranveig. A lengthy report has been forwarded about his actions to the emperor. I foresee a long distance separating the two of you, all in your favor, of course.” 

Sendak blew a gust of wind from his nostrils. _Who are you?_

“What is your name?” 

The Galra appeared slightly hurt with the question but recovered quickly. 

“Haxus, sir,” he said. “I am a solider stationed under your command.” 

“Haxus,” Sendak repeated. He gave him a curt nod and smile as he turned back to studying his new arm. “I am indebted to you.”

* * *

The years trickled by, and the family grew smaller for both. The battle Keith’s father had fought with his illness finally led to a defeat. The funeral, tiny and bare with no sign of Keith’s mother appearing, was made bearable with Shiro there, a comforting arm around him. His arms became Keith’s world. 

Years later, right before Shiro was to begin his studies at the Galaxy Garrison, his grandfather too left the world. And Keith’s arms became Shiro’s world. 

“He didn’t make it to my first day,” Shiro sighed at the day of the funeral, while Keith embraced him tightly. “But he was here for my graduation, at least. He was there to see me tour the school. He can rest knowing I’m okay. That I’m heading somewhere, you know?”

Keith buried his fair in Shiro’s chest, thinking of his own father. They had nothing; all the money had gone to paying for his medical treatment. His father begged for Keith’s forgiveness while on his deathbed. 

Out on the desert Keith had discovered a small shack his father bought years ago. Most of his equipment were still within, and in the next few years it filled with proper furniture and trinkets from Keith and Shiro, as he was invited to live here whenever he wished. He had his own set of keys. Keith pored over the textbooks Shiro left behind. 

Keith would wake to pamphlets to the Galaxy Garrison on his father’s coffee table. Not that Shiro was pushing him. Just a suggestion, he would say with a little smile. Keith’s control of the hoverbike was so smooth Shiro could fall asleep with his head nested on Keith’s shoulder and his arms around him. There were scholarships available. The Garrison wouldn’t leave a promising pupil to the dust.

And as Keith got older, he grew afraid. He couldn’t afford art supplies or even a camera for any kind of creative work. He felt intimidated by the knowledge others possessed of history or literature, despite reading plenty of books himself as they were free at the town’s library. Although he was fairly good at maths and the sciences, he didn’t want to be far from Shiro. 

He passed his entrance exams with ease.

* * *

Haxus continued to impress Sendak, and there was never a day when he didn’t. His knowledge of electronics went beyond what Sendak had originally imagined. The Galra knew his way with remote hacking and tinkering with codes, something Sendak was almost terrified with the thought of the man hacking into and changing the coding of his own arm.

The thought also thrilled him. 

Sendak found himself visiting High Priestess Haggar more than once, as she was prone to upgrade her creations. When it came to his arm, Haxus was involved. He had visions, and with each upgrade, Sendak had to grudgingly admit they were better. He was rising as a commander, a sight that made the others cowered, fellow commanders and subordinates both. 

Save for Haxus. He found him fascinating. With his newest upgrade, Sendak pondered how easily he could easily crush Ranveig’s skull in his hand. And with the way Haxus studied him with rapt attention, he was starting to suspect he fantasized the same. That, too, thrilled him. 

Somehow, at some point, they found themselves sharing a bed. 

It was bound to be. Haxus’s mind fascinated him as much as Sendak’s body inflamed Haxus. 

He awoke in the middle of the night. He could make out the shape of Haxus tracing his bionic arm, humming softly, but he did not retract his arm. Gone were the days of fearing for his safety over Haxus’s maniacal obsession with electronics. His lover’s mind was spinning with new ideas for a new upgrade. He would later share them with Haggar. And who was Sendak to deny his lover?

* * *

When Shiro was chosen to board on the mission to Kerberos, the initial thrill of the news soon ebbed to sorrow, for it would be the first time in years that Keith would be alone. 

He held onto Shiro for the longest time before finally setting him free. 

“It’ll take a whole semester and a half before you reach Kerberos,” Keith calculated. “I’ll look for your shuttle every night.” 

Shiro hummed into his shoulder. “You know what will make the time speed up?” he said and they finally parted. “Ace every exam. Give Iverson no reason to report you back to General de los Santos’s office. Continue impressing Commander Montgomery with your piloting on those simulators; you’ll want her on your side every time Iverson starts something.” 

Keith laughed. “You’re trying to get me to forget about you.” 

“I want you to focus on your studies,” Shiro corrected softly yet firmly. “You have better potential than me, Keith, if you can channel your focus. By the time you are all done, I will be heading back home. You won’t even feel the time pass by.” 

His smile held all the promise in the world. And just for Shiro, Keith vowed to be the very top of his class.

* * *

_“Sendak!”_

Haggar jumped aside as Sendak barreled through the door, his rage roaring out of his lungs. His mind was solely on one thing the moment he had heard of the accident. 

Haxus lay in a heap on the cold burnished floor. Sweeping down, he cupped Haxus into his arms and shook him. 

“Wake up,” he demanded, though affection still slipped through his lips. 

The blast had singed the hem of his vest. Haxus coughed and cracked open an eye before his gazed settled on Sendak. 

“It will require a few more tests,” he said in that smug voice, “but your latest upgrade will top even that of the primate brat in the dungeons.” 

“Don’t ever frighten me like that!” Sendak hissed and pressed his lover’s face to his chest, pinning him by his bionic hand. If Haxus was going to complain of a headache, he had Sendak and the arm he and Haggar gave him to thank for it.

* * *

“Thank you,” Keith whispered. He didn’t know who he was thanking. Perhaps there was a passing deity who did listen to prayers every now and again. 

His arms stayed around Shiro, refusing to let him go. He didn’t want to believe it when he had first saw the news streaming past his phone, tainting it with such vile thought as to Shiro’s death. The television screens playing on every set throughout the Garrison mocked him. _Shiro would never die by a pilot error. Never!_

“Don’t scare me like that again,” Keith whispered softly in Shiro’s ear. Without thinking, he kissed his brow, but Shiro didn’t pull away. He smiled, and his face softened into a quiet slumber as he sunk into Keith’s embrace. 

Three others were staying the night in Keith’s shack. There wasn’t much in the way of extra mattresses and blankets, as Keith and Shiro seldom had any visitors beyond one another, but they made with whatever they had, packed like sardines on the lower level. Three Garrison students crashing downstairs while Keith and Shiro were tucked upstairs. Keith imagined his father used to study the stars from the attic. The place was a tight squeeze, but it was comfortable. Safe and warm for the two of them. 

Shiro lay on his stomach just a few inches away. His face was bogged down with weariness; scarred, his hair whitened from the stress, but he was here. Back home. Back where he belonged. 

“Don’t leave me,” Shiro slurred as sleep slipped him away from Keith’s arms. 

“I’m never letting you go,” Keith said softly and kissed him again. “Sleep.”

* * *

_“Haxus is gone, and you're next!”_

Sendak reacted immediately to the brat’s threat, amidst to all the cold dread that immediately followed, the sudden drop of his heart at the news. Haxus would not fall by the hand of one so young—he refused to believe it, but the haughtiness in the kid’s voice was enough to infuriate him. 

He grabbed and tortured their leader to let out his own frustration. The longer Haxus was silent, the worst the inner pain grew. 

Grief muddled his thinking. One tiny wrong move and he found himself battling several humans and a couple of Alteans. One wrong move—where was Haxus? He could not have died, not to a tiny nuisance—he found himself locked in a war, outnumbered. Outsmarted and trapped, he lost his arm, the greatest upgrade Haggar and Haxus had given him, and he suspected death would be imminent. If the humans had no qualms of killing Haxus…

At the least they would be reunited.

* * *

This wasn’t supposed to happen again. Keith gripped the leather head, staring down at the spot Shiro should have been. He cursed the lion who should have been protecting him. 

He had not been moving after the battle. They had all gotten worried for him, but they thought he would be here. Injured, passed out, but _here._

“How?” Keith wanted to cry out. No one had seen anyone leave the lion. How did Shiro leave it? How did Keith end up losing him again, and so soon? 

His fingers dug into the fabric. He hated this stupid robotic lion. _How? WHY?_

* * *

Sendak turned his back, his job with Janka now done. The fool’s ship would do for the time being. His heart gave a slight jump at the thought of what he may achieve. 

He recalled words, spoken softly in a dimmed bedroom, as Haxus coiled over him, his voice velvety and lulling him to back to sleep. 

There was meaning in those words he was only beginning to understand. Something he had discovered. A message, as if Haxus knew they may one day be parted. 

He wasn’t dead. Sendak knew. He had reached out and gotten scrapes of answers in return. 

And there was another with him, someone Sendak would be most pleased to meet. 

Sendak would extract Haxus and the prisoner out of the astral realm, whatever is takes.

* * *

The story cut him deep in his gut, the knife twisting until Keith doubled over. He had to hold onto something. 

Each of the paladins snd Coran had a different side of the story to tell, a new piece of the puzzle to take and put together to give Keith the full picture. His Shiro was gone. The Shiro he had found nearly dead in a Galra pilot ship was not the Shiro, his Shiro, who had come back to him on that desert. 

_I’ve failed you…_

He ran to the only hope he could find. Something Lance had mentioned provided a clue on where to begin his search.

The Black Lion stood waiting and empty. Her previous pilot had long left, compromised from the sleeper spell placed on him. He did it for everyone’s protection. Shiro would have done the same. 

Keith slipped onto the spot and grabbed the handles. 

“Please, you’ve trusted me twice,” Keith said under his breath. “I know I hated you for taking Shiro from me, but you’ve also let me fly you to save Shiro on that planet. You let me pilot you when Shiro was away. Now I need you to help me find Shiro—really find him. The man I brought back…I’m so sorry.” 

Something cold curled in the pit of his stomach. The lion hummed lowly around him and the light kicked into gear. But Keith wasn’t sailing through the cosmos. He felt himself sinking back, although he was vaguely aware of sitting still. 

Black was helping him search. He could, somehow, peer within, his mind and spirit entering another realm of existence. But the ill feeling only kept growing inside. 

And he thought he knew why. 

“Please, don’t let me be too late!” 

He gripped the handles. “Whatever it takes, Shiro, I will find you and I will rescue you!”

* * *

Months, years. Time lost all meaning here. Shiro had no recollection of how long he was trapped in this realm. He had tried to call for help, but it was like yelling through waves of water over him. 

Keith seemed to think of him constantly; he felt his thoughts around him. It filled him with warmth, but he needed Keith in his arms. He needed to be in Keith’s arms. He called out, tried to envision Keith before him, but to no avail. 

Lost between realms of reality, with no sense of time nor body to inhabit. 

And then there was a new presence, him but not him. Keith was gone. Shiro reached out, but the body was cold. It scorched his hands and fear grew for his friends. Where was Keith? 

By chance Shiro was able to reach out to Lance. But the link was severed too soon, and in its wake was something worse, far worse. 

An old enemy, another foe prowling this same pane of existence. 

He felt him try to hack him. The foe somehow froze him on the spot, and he could feel his entire body’s insides reprogramming. Hacked. 

But, who? 

How did Haxus die again? What did Pidge say? What if he… 

He fought against his binds and ran—where does one hide in this world?

He searched for Keith’s presence. The electrical currant that signified Haxus’s presence swept over him. 

Another shadow grew, a darkness that coiled around his neck and tightened its grip until he fought and gasped for breath. 

“No…” Shiro wheezed under his breath. “Keith…please hurry!” 

He could feel something warm, something red and violet and familiar, floating near, and his heart hammered as he reached out one final time and thought of the young man who had become his entire universe.


End file.
